Burning Memories
by StormAzure
Summary: Sara Kingsleigh, a mentally unstable girl is taken to Underland and must destroy the rising evil and some foes from her own past. Rating may increase. My first AIW Fic, please review. Full description inside.
1. Chapter 1

**Ok so this is my first Alice In Wonderland fic and I am more accustomed to the 1951 cartoon Walt Disney version but I have of course watched the 2010 version so that is why this is classed as a cross over since there are aspects from both films.**

**I'm sorry if this idea is not very original but I hope you enjoy it and please could you take the time to review it even if it is just "this is cool" or "please update soon", just so I know someone is reading and there is a point on carrying this on!**

**If I do continue with it, it will not be updated regularly as my mother keeps nicking my laptop and I want these chapters to be quite long and, as I have looked back at my old Fics from Digimon and such and have realised that they just aren't any good and I wish to put a lot more relatable situations and characters in my stories from now on and also make it more inflicting on the reader. I want you to know my character, I want you to feel what she is feeling, how she is feeling, I want to make what she says believable, like in real life, not in my imagination. I hope this makes sense. If not, just read on and put yourself in my character's shoes, imagine the fear she is feeling, the excitement, the depression.**

**Ok so, that was a longer author's note than I hoped. Thank you for your attention and please review, like I said!**

**Alternatedigimon –x-**

The day couldn't have been any better for photography. The autumn sun was shining in the sky and red and orange leaves were scattered across the concrete pathway of the church yard.

Fifteen-year-old Sara Kingsleigh aimed the lens of the camera at a group of leaves that had been caught by the wind and were floating in the air. Then, her attentions turned to the church itself. The exterior was old and crumbling despite having been restored only a few months previous. Roots of trees had found their way under the foundations of the church, breaking the brick work and sending long chasms up the sides of the once sturdy walls. This church had made it through two world wars, one world cup and ten centuries of history. Now, it was giving up on its life.

Sara felt sorry for the church. She too had been through many events in her life and her once strong nature had been reduced to nothingness. Only sadness and depression remained in her once active mind. Photography, she felt, was her only escape. Through the lens of her camera, she saw beauty and hopes in this world of evil and torment. The world that had so brutally ripped her parents away from her when she was so young, the world that teased and bullied her until all she wanted to do, all she could do to get away from it was curl up in a ball and imagine a new world, one where she was accepted and where someone, or something, cared about her.

Sara aimed her camera into the treetops where a mother bird was building a nest for her expected young. As her arms went above her head, Sara's loose shirt sleeves fell up to her upper arms, revealing the scars and scratches from the many times she had cut herself. She had figured many years ago that, in a dream, you didn't feel pain, or the pain was so excruciating it jerked you awake and the bad dream would end, unfortunately, it hadn't and Sara had grown a liking for the sharp pain her dagger provided her with. It reminded her that she was still alive and there was still hope. The pain was the only thing she kept living for, the pain was her beacon of hope.

She pulled her sleeves back down and let her camera drop around her neck. The wind in the graveyard was picking up, tossing the girl's blonde ponytail around from where it was resting between her shoulder blades until it came to rest over her shoulder.

With a content sigh, Sara glanced at the gate of the churchyard where her old fashioned bike was waiting for her return. She contemplated going home and then glanced around the graveyard. Something about one certain dead, rotting tree intrigued her, caught her attention. It looked just like the tree from her dream world, but not just any tree, the tree that had been planted over fifty years ago to commemorate the passing of the Champion.

Sara, her mind racing, made her way over to the tree, her camera now in her hands so it wouldn't keep bouncing against her chest, and also, so it was primed to take a shot of the twisted knots in the bark of the tree. As she got closer, Sara felt the ground beneath her feet get softer, wetter, where the tree had drawn water from the ground to feed itself. Sara stepped cautiously, not wanting to sprain her ankle again, and then yelped as the ground gave out beneath her and she began to fall into the dark and dirty cavern. Her mind began to spin with questions. What was happening to her? How was this possible? Why was something this… intriguing happening to someone as mundane and undeserving as her? The questions were replaced by emotions. Raw terror, fear like she had never felt before, not since the night her parents died. As she fell, fear was replaced by confusion as she realised that she was not falling down, but up and other objects were falling with her, or rather, against her.

Boredom set in after only ten minutes but unanswerable questions were still at the front of her mind. If she was falling downwards, for that is the only way one can fall otherwise it is not falling, then why was her loose shirt tight against her, as if the wind was travelling around her, not against her. But then, if she was falling downwards, which she was sure she was not, why were the objects accompanying her falling away from her. She folded her arms over her chest in both boredom and frustration as a large black grand piano passed her, gently floating from her head to her toes. The piano was definitely falling from top to bottom as one was meant to fall but Sara was travelling in the opposite direction, from bottom to top, but then, how had she fallen down the hole in the ground unless she had in fact been upside-down back where she had been previously, when she had thought she had been the right way up for she was in England, not Australia, so she had been walking on her feet, not on her head.

'Oh dear, this is much too complicated,' Sara stated as the whole contents of a dining room passed by her, one of the chairs capturing her in its cushioned seat for a few seconds before tipping her off again.

'Oh dear, oh dear,' the girl tutted, her statement then followed by a sharp gasp and her hand being slapped over her mouth.

'Why, my voice.'

'No, for it is not my voice that comes from my lips and I speak with the tongue of a stranger,' she continued.

Sara's head had begun to ache with all the confusion and all the questions which were building up in it. She was falling upwards. She was surrounded by inanimate objects which were somehow falling against her and now, to top it all off, the icing on the proverbial cake, her voice was gone and had been replaced with a stranger's from the eighteenth century!

A sharp pain suddenly shot up through her legs, making her heart skip a beat and causing her whole body to start to tremble with fear. A sick feeling rose in her stomach and she began to sweat. She couldn't deal with this. She couldn't go through any more emotional pain. Her mind began to cloud over, blocking out the new sounds and smells and atmosphere she had been dropped in to. She squeezed her eyes shut as tight as she could until she began to feel pain in them. Her body was still shaking violently, close to convulsing, and Sara felt faint. This was how she dealt with things, she closed down her mind and her senses and she blocked them out, pretended they weren't happening, and if she couldn't do it in time and was forced to go through with them, then she would chose to forget them and erase the events from her memory. It meant that she could keep going but it also meant she had quite a few hazy missing spots in her life.

'Hello?'

Sara took in a deep breath, trying to make her head stop spinning before gathering the courage to open her eyes and look to see who owned the voice. When she did, she screamed and stumbled backwards, tripping over a misplaced rock, falling back into a small stream she had not previously noticed. She let out a little yelp and felt a pain in her rear as the rocks at the bottom of the stream pierced her flesh, drawing little beads of blood to the surface of her skin.

'Ouch,' Sara groaned and slowly looked up at the owner of the voice, hoping to god they weren't scary since she wasn't in any state to be able to defend herself or deal with the emotional torment.

'Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you,' an orange haired, green eyed man with extremely pale skin and red lips told her softly.

'You didn't, I'm just a little clumsy,' Sara explained.

The man nodded his head and offered the girl his hand. She cautiously took it and got back to her feet, then brushing herself off and realising she was soaked through.

'I, am, uh…' the girl began.

'You're soaked, and dressed in quite strange attire,' the man pointed out.

'I was trying to say that my name was Sara. And, thank you very much, but I am dressed in what everyone wears – _you're _the one dressed like a madman!' she snapped, her anger suddenly flaring and letting her lost confidence shine through.

'I guess that is why they call me the Mad Hatter,' the man said, taking his top hat off, placing one foot behind the other and bowing a little whilst gliding the hand with his in it out to the side.

**So, that is the first chapter done! I hope you enjoyed it! The rating on this will definitely increase unless I leave the *censored* bits out and include the links below where they should be – if that makes sense. The only really dodgy bits which are unsuitable for younger readers will be in the later chapters and I will also be adding an optional chapter at the end – or put it as a separate Fic and add the link at the end of this story! The rest of the story won't have profane language I promise and there will only be hinted sexual undertones – just like in the 2010 film with Stayne and Alice in the corridor!**

**I will publish the next chapter if I get at least one review – if I get more that would be great! I hope you will keep an eye on this and keep reviewing to let me know I'm doing good or not wasting my time. Oh and also please only nice reviews because believe me I am going through hell at the moment and writing is my way of getting away from it. Flamers are just going to make me want to throw myself off a bridge even more **** - flames will also be used to light your stake when I have hunted you down and tied you to a post and put heaps of straw under your stupid feet!**

**Huh-hum, anyway, sanity returned, please review – I need a self-esteem boost.**

**Alternatedigimon –x-**


	2. Chapter 2

**So, this is chapter two of my Burning Memories saga! Thank you to all who read and reviewed – and those who just read. This chapter is mostly explanation so you'd better listen – read – closely!**

**Anyway, please review!**

**Alternatedigimon –x-**

'_I guess that is why they call me the Mad Hatter,' the man said, taking his top hat off, placing one foot behind the other and bowing a little whilst gliding the hand with his hat in it out to the side._

Sara joined the man once she had changed into something more appropriate for the decade it seemed to be in this strange world. Now, Sara was dressed in a cornflower blue dress, with puffed sleeves and an exterior corset and many petticoats beneath the finely embroidered outer skirt. Since the Mad Hatter was male – or at least Sara guessed he was male, who was to say those who inhabited this world differentiated between sex and race? – He did not own any undergarments suitable for a young lady like Sara, so she remained in her "earth" undergarments until a more suitable arrangement could be found. In her fall up to this strange place, Sara had lost the ribbon which had been holding her hair in place and now was using a small piece of string the Mad Hatter kept in his pocket to tie back the mass of blonde curls that were forming on the upper layers of her hair where the water had gotten to it and begun to matte it. The rest of Sara's loose little curls fell around her slender shoulders.

'Now my dear Sara,' the Mad Hatter muttered as he led the girl gently by her hand away from the thick bushes she had been made to change behind, and towards a small picnic scene with some rather odd looking characters.

'What brings you to Underland?' he continued.

'Why, I don't quite know, I simply stumbled across it merely by an accident whilst out for a walk,' the girl explained, then cupping her hand over her mouth – she hadn't yet grown used to, nor fond of, her new voice.

'But everyone comes to Underland for a reason my dear,' the March Hare stated.

'I have not been informed of my reason as of yet I suppose,' Sara retaliated, still with her hand in front of her mouth.

'Speak up girl, my ears aren't what they used to be,' Bayard the Bloodhound told her, straining his wrinkled neck towards her so his ears dragged on the ground behind him.

'I do not yet know why I am here in… Underland,' she repeated, glancing at the Mad Hatter for assurance on her pronunciation.

He nodded his head and smiled at her.

'We know why we're here,' the White Rabbit, who was now turning silver in his old age, muttered.

'And why would that be?' Sara asked him, smiling down at him.

'It is why we're all here,' the rabbit continued.

'White Rabbit, I think the girl wishes to hear a good bedtime story,' the Mad Hatter told him.

'Then gather round all and I shall tell ye' of how our great Underland came to be how it is, and no longer what it was,' the White Rabbit sang, taking too much enjoyment in confusing the poor young girl.

'Here, sit with me,' the Hatter whispered to Sara as he again took her by her wrist and sat her down on the blue and white picnic blanket the group were sat on.

Sara watched silently and with wide eyes as the White Rabbit stood up tall and took his pocket watch from his waistcoat before nodding his head and taking a deep breath.

'Ninety-nine years ago, for it shall be one-hundred years exactly this time next week, our brave Champion passed away, ending the peace of Underland,' the rabbit began.

'For some time, we lived happily under the White Queen's rule until several moons past when a young man, proclaiming his self to be the true heir to the throne of Underland, stormed the White Queen's palace,' the March Hare interrupted.

'Who is meant to be telling this story, me or you?' the White Rabbit snapped.

'Well actually it's-,'

'Never mind that you two, the child wants to hear the story!' Bayard barked before an argument could ensue.

'Well, as I was saying,' the White Rabbit said, glaring at the March Hare.

He stuck his tongue out at the White Rabbit and then listened to the rest of the story, finding it intriguing despite this being the hundredth time he'd heard it.

'This boy has imprisoned the White Queen on the top of the Sugarloaf mountain,' the White Rabbit told Sara.

'What a peculiar name,' Sara giggled.

'It is a peculiar place. The Sugarloaf mountain is the tallest and most coldest mountain in Underland, not the kind of place for a Queen,' the Mad Hatter told her.

Sara marvelled at what the Mad Hatter had said.

'How long has she been imprisoned in this place?' the young girl asked.

The Mad Hatter, the March Hare, Bayard the Bloodhound and the White Rabbit exchanged a glance.

'It must be coming up to…' Bayard muttered.

'Around the region of…' the White Rabbit added.

'Twelve months,' the Mad Hatter stated finally.

Sara's eyes grew wide with both horror and disgust. Unjust and false imprisonment was something which was completely outrageous to Sara. She shuddered at the thought of being locked in the same small room for an entire year of her life.

'Ouch,' Sara whispered as she pressed her hand to her tightening chest as memories of nights spent restrained on hospital beds flooded back to her.

Of course, it had been for her own safety when times had really got bad for her and she had cut a little too deep. She had been locked in the hospital room for days on end, with no windows, and the only door being locked from the outside.

Sara noticed that the Hatter was giving her a funny look from beneath the rim of his top hat. She forced herself to take in a deep breath and ignore the rising feeling in her chest which was threatening to form a lump in her throat.

'Why has no one done anything to help the White Queen?' Sara asked, still with her hand on her chest.

'If only it were that simple, but alas, the only way to free her from her prison is by obtaining the Azure Crystal,' the Mad Hatter replied.

'And everyone knows the imposter wears the Azure Crystal around his neck so no one can take it from him,' the March Hare added.

'As long as he has the Azure Crystal, we are under his power,' the White Rabbit said with a sigh.

'You speak as if you are defeated,' Sara exclaimed.

'We are my dear, without our Champion, we cannot even begin to think of defeating this evil boy,' the Mad Hatter told her.

Sara narrowed her eyes, suddenly feeling a rush of adrenaline pulsing through her veins.

'You can't just give up on the White Queen, on the rest of Underland! It's not right,' Sara insisted.

'How do you suggest we fight the imposter Sara? Are you going to take the place of our Champion and defeat him?' the March Hare asked the girl with his arms folded defensively over his chest.

The colour drained from Sara's cheeks.

'I couldn't. I'm not strong enough,' she whispered.

The Mad Hatter frowned and put his arm around the girl's shoulder. She grew ridged at the display of affection she had lived without for so long but somehow found this stranger's touch more comforting and welcome than she would have imagined and almost allowed herself to relax into the man's warmth.

'If you believe it to be so, there is a little bit of our Champion in all of us, dear child,' the Hatter whispered into the girl's hair.

'Your Champion, what was her name?' Sara asked openly.

'Alice, Alice Kingsleigh,' the Mad Hatter replied since everyone else gave only blank looks.

Sara's eyes grew wide and she jumped to her feet.

'No, no way. I cannot deal with this. This is much too peculiar for my liking,' she though aloud as she began to walk swiftly away from the astounded looking group on the picnic rug.

'Sara, please, come back!' the Mad Hatter called after her as he too got to his feet.

'No!' Sara shouted back and broke into a run back to the stream she had fallen in and the small clearing she had fallen up.

'Take me home! I want to go home… now!' Sara called into the sky.

'Please take me home. I want to wake up now. Take me out of Underland. I know I didn't like my life very much but I can't deal with this! TAKE ME HOME!' Sara screamed, tears pouring down her cheeks and her heart pounding against her chest.

Her knees began to wobble and she sunk to the ground, defeated.

'I can't do this,' she whispered, folding over at her middle so her forehead was resting on her knees.

'I can't do this,' she repeated quietly, rocking herself back and forth and trying hard to concentrate on continuing breathing.

'Please, _please_, I can't deal with this,' Sara whispered to herself as her breathing became shallower and her throat began to close up.

'Take me home.'

The back of her neck was pricking with sweat beads and her eyes were blurry with tears. Every breath was a struggle and caught in her throat, making her choke and sending shooting pains down through her arms and chest. She was going to die, she knew it. Her throat was closing up and soon, she wouldn't be able to breath and she would suffocate.

'Sara, please listen to me,' the familiar and somehow comforting voice of the Hatter cut through the darkness engulphing her mind.

'I can't. I'm sorry. I need to go home. I can't stay here. I can't fight your battle for you. I'm not strong enough,' Sara told him, still bent over.

Above her, the Hatter smiled sympathetically and then crouched down next to her and rubbed her back.

'Now stop it you know that's not true,' the Hatter told her.

'It is. I'm stupid and pathetic and weak and I can't even stick up for myself, never mind a whole land. I let everyone down. I can't be responsible for anyone's death. I can't fight my own battles. I can't fight any battles. I will lose. I am a loser. I'm a freak. I'm so stupid and weird and… I hate this. I hate feeling like this. I hate being me. I hate being so weak and pathetic.'

'Now Sara, listen to me,' the Hatter said sternly, putting his hands on the girl's shoulders and lifting her straight.

She looked into his piercing blue eyes and gulped.

'You are not worthless,' the Mad Hatter told her in a firm tone of voice.

'Yes I am,' Sara muttered.

'No, no you're not,' the Hatter snapped.

Sara sniffed.

'I have only just met you, and believe me; I do not think you are worthless, I think you are amazing. You are so pretty and brave and you have taken this all in your stride which shows great courage for a child of your age who has been through all you have,' the Hatter continued.

A blush had crept onto Sara's cheeks now and when he noticed, the Hatter laughed.

'You're… why can't my stupid counsellors be a scratch on you?' Sara asked with a quiet laugh of her own as she wrapped her arms around the Hatter's neck and hugged him close.

After he'd gathered himself together, the Mad Hatter returned the hug and the two sat in their embrace until Sara pulled back and wiped the tears from her eyes, realising that her chest had loosened and her breathing had stopped hitching in her throat.

'Thank you,' Sara whispered.

'You're very welcome little lassie,' the Hatter told her and gently kissed the top of her head.

'But, if you don't mind me asking, why did you get so worked up?'

Sara shook her head.

'My surname is Kingsleigh,' she whispered slowly.

'Any relation to our Champion?' the Hatter asked almost sarcastically.

'My great-grandmother was Alice Kingsleigh.'

**Now I was going to do some review replies at the end of this chapter but because my stupid phone provider – Ofucking2 – have decided to block on my mobile, I don't know what the fuck people have written.**

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter.**

**Thank you to all who have reviewed.**

**Alternatedigimon –x-**


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